Content Analysis: New York Liberty and the WNBA

Review

The subject in which I am performing a Content Analysis on is the New York Liberty’s victory in the 2024 WNBA Championship - a win that marks a significant milestone in the history of the team and in women’s professional basketball. The New York Liberty stands as one of the founding teams of the league, and has a storied legacy, yet they were lacking a big win as Champions. This win signifies all of their effort, determination and secures their place as a force to be reckoned with in the WNBA. This championship means more, not just because of the team's background, but also because of the type of year the WNBA has had. Historically, the WNBA has struggled with media coverage in comparison to its male counterparts. In an article by Ben Strauss of the Washington Post, he explains that the WNBA League has stated that women’s sports receive less than 5 percent of total sports coverage (Strauss, 2023). However, after recent shifts in public interest, strategic marketing and sponsorship efforts, the WNBA has begun to alter the landscape and perception of what it means to be a professional woman athlete. In addition, this year's WNBA Finals was the most-viewed WNBA finals game in 25 years across all networks, topping out at 3.3 million viewers (Piazza, 2024). The NY Liberty’s championship has sparked conversations around gender equity and the role that the media has when it comes to shaping the public's perspective of female athletes.

We are all aware that significant strides have been made in promoting women’s sports, but there is a question that remains - and it is sustainability. How will media coverage evolve following the New York Liberty’s victory and the successful year that the WNBA has had? Will this successful season lead to increased investment and support for women’s sports in general? These are questions that are posed when thinking about my topic for this analysis. 

Content

For this content analysis, I will be focusing on the social commentary which was associated with the New York Liberty’s championship victory, specifically in the comments on their Instagram page. I will specifically be focusing on their October 20th post introducing the 2024 WNBA Champions, which included a graphic of the NY Liberty with the words “Champions” across the post. This post garnered 119,000 + likes, 2,398 comments and over 31,000 shares. 

Social media has taken over as the preferred method for fans to follow sports, because it is a two way conversation that allows sports fans to engage, react and feel connected to the teams and athletes that they love (Greenfly, 2024). Instagram has become a crucial space for fans to express their views, celebrate achievements, and engage with a larger community. Conversely, it is also a public forum that can also evolve into a space of hate, by those who do not support the Liberty or the WNBA as a whole. Studies have shown that platforms such as Instagram produce the same neural circuitry that is caused by gambling and recreational drugs to keep consumers using their products (Davis, 2022). This is why it is interesting to analyze how people use social media to express any and all feelings towards their favorite sports teams, as it feels like the easiest way to reach them directly. In this analysis, I will be covering a sample of sixty comments, aiming to uncover patterns in sentiment, themes and the overall public response to Liberty's historic win. 

Research Question/Variable of Interest

My research question is as followed:

• What is the tone of social media commentary regarding the New York Liberty’s first WNBA Championship win, and how does it reflect the public sentiment towards women’s sports?

Category System

To analyze the social media commentary surrounding the NY Liberty’s first WNBA Championship win via Instagram comments, I have implemented a category system that focuses on both the tone of the comments and the themes in which are presented in the discourse. The first category will be the tone of the comments. This can be classified into three different groups: positive and negative. Positive comments are those that express joy for the team, pride from the New York fan base and celebration for the big victory. All of these attributes highlight the significance of the Liberty’s achievements and the impact they have on the WNBA as a whole. Negative comments may reflect dissatisfaction, criticism of actual game or referee calls, and any perceived shortcomings in the organization of the game or media’s coverage. 

The second category in which I will be focusing on is different themes amongst the comments. This will involve identifying recurring topics or narratives that emerge. These topics can include celebrating the teams success, discussions around the performance of individual players, reflections of the game’s best and key moments, comments about either team as a whole and calls for increased support in women’s sports. Additionally, I will look for mentions of historical context, such as references to the Liberty’s past struggles as a franchise or comparisons to other teams and leagues. By categorizing comments in this manner, I am analyzing the diversity in how the public is perceiving the NY Liberty’s win, as well as proving that the WNBA is reaching a larger audience than ever before. 

Unit of Analysis

The unit of analysis for this study will be individual social media comments that are in reference to the New York Liberty’s championship victory. Each comment will be examined for its content, tone and thematic elements, along with its presence in the comment section. To ensure a comprehensive analysis, I will be randomly selecting a diverse sample of comments from the Liberty Instagram, focusing on their most successful post showing the newest WNBA Champions. By piecing together different comments, this will allow for a holistic view of public opinion, engagement, and capturing different perspectives from a wide range of users, including fans, analysts and casual viewers. 

Results

After coding a total of 60 social media comments related to the New York Liberty’s first WNBA Championship win, the analysis revealed notable trends in sentiment and thematic content. The results are summarized in the table below, along with the post for context of where the comments were coming from. The positive and negative comments account for 33.3% of total comments. The celebration of the team's success makes up 8.3% of the comments selected. The performance of individual players make up 10% of the comments. Comments about the key moments and plays of the game make up 6.7%, and a call for increased support in women’s sports stands at 8.3% of selected comments. 

Discussion

The data above reveals that there is a complex landscape of how the public is viewing the New York Liberty’s Championship win for the 2024 WNBA season. The equal distribution opf positive and negative comments suggests that there were many fans celebrating this win, while at the same time others expressed dissatisfaction. In talking about the positive comments, many of these came from verified, New York instagram brands. For example, The New York Yankees shared their congratulations, as well as Derek Jeter, the Brooklyn Nets, NYC Gov, Gotham Football Club and the New York Jets. This shows the deep rooted comradery that comes with being a New York Franchise, as the community always comes together to support their neighborhood teams. In regards to the negative comments, the question is posed - are these people negative because of a deeper issue with the WNBA? Are they fans of the opposing team that lost? Or are they projecting a negative light that the media has represented women sports in? Many of the negative comments also had to do with the referees in the final game of the WNBA Championship. Many viewers were clearly unhappy with the way the referees did their job, claiming that they favored the Liberty over the Lynx. There were also comments about the success of the team, with comments like “What a team!” talking about how the athletes worked well together for this championship. In regards to the comments about individual players, fans individually comment at the players mentioning how they played well in the game, for example, “@breannastewart30 Now that's a champion!” I also expected that the comments about games' key moments and calls for an increase in support would be on the lower side, solely because this post was made for congratulating the team, not calling for an action for change or showing game highlights. 

These findings underscore the importance of ongoing dialogue surrounding how women are treated in the sports world, and a bigger conversation of gender equity is also relevant. As the Liberty’s victory impacted so many in their community, it also raises the question about the long-term impact of this achievement on the public's perception and engagement with the Women’s National Basketball League as a whole. I am curious if the New York Liberty’s championship win will serve as a turning point, encouraging more people to invest their time, money and energy into women’s sports. Addressing these questions would strengthen the momentum gained from the Liberty's success, in order to translate into meaningful changes in media representation and audience engagement in the future.